The Nurse's Role In The Civil War

The Civil War was provoked for several reasons which included industry, slavery, and territorial disputes among the Northern states and Southern states of the newly established United States. The first recorded engagement of war between the North and South is documented to have taken place on April 12th, 1861 at The Battle of Fort Sumter. This was the starting point of a war that would claim over 600,000 American lives in a relatively short span of 4 years.

A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.

Over 5000 volunteer nurses’ north and south served in military hospitals during the Civil War. Nurses were of all sorts and came from all over. Women wanted to be involved in this national struggle in any way they could. They did not want to stay home and play their traditional domestic roles that social convention and minimal career opportunities had confined the majority of their sex to. Many women thought of nursing as an extension of their home duties, almost like taking care of “their boys.” They recall the Civil War as a time when their work as nurses made a difference. It gave them an opportunity to prove they had the ability and courage to help.

The medicines and medical techniques used during the Civil War were very primitive for their time. Extremely little was known about germs and the dangers of infections. In Recovery, it is stated that, “Treating wounds and illnesses with medication had become common—opiates, stimulants, sedatives, diuretics, purgatives, and more were widely available and used. The first pills had been made in the early 1800s. The stethoscope and the

Frederick Douglass once said “What a change now greets us! The Government is aroused, the dead North is alive, and its divided people united…The cry now is for war, vigorous war, war to the bitter end, and war till the traitors are effectually and permanently put down” (Allen, 2005). In 1861, the start of the Civil War was needed by the Confederacy and the Union. Ever since the American Revolution and the birth of the United States, seventy-eight years earlier, there were many disagreements that began to tear apart the country. The main issues that were debated were state rights, unfair taxation, and slavery. Slavery was the main issue because it caused a separation between the north and the south. The north had mostly abolished slavery by this time because it became an industry driven economy, while the south was made up of plantations that grew crops. Almost half of the southern population was made up of slaves because about one-third of families owned slaves. The southern states wanted to break away to start their own establishment and we able to have slaves if they wanted. The Civil War began with the Battle of Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is located in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor, three and a half miles from the shore. Many events occurred leading up to, during, and after the battle to mark it as an important part of the Civil War.

The civil war is an important event in the history of the United States. It began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate General opened fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and lasted until May 26,1865, when the last Confederate army surrendered . All aspects of the war have been a topic of concern to the academic community, especially in the United States. In my opinion, the civil war not only important for American, but also important for the world. Here I will show you the main causes of the Civil War.

In the world today nursing plays a major role that often associates with Civil War women, due to the fame of Clara Barton. Clara later founded “the American Red Cross in 1881.” Unlike other nurses she went out to the battlefield to nurse the soldier where they have fallen. With that courageous act she became known at the “Angel of the Battlefield.” Clara was a courageous

During the Civil War, they had to have many medicines, operations, and surgeries done to themselves or others in order to survive (Jenny Goellnitz, Paragraph 1). Some of these medicines we still use today. Medical technology and scientific knowledge have changed dramatically since the Civil War, but the basic principles of military health care remain the same. The deadliest thing that faced the Civil War soldier was disease. For every soldier who died in battle, two died from disease.

The United States has been involved in a lot of wars and battles throughout the past. The Civil War was one of the most significant moments in the history of the United States of America. The Civil War took place between the North and South of the United States of America following the Confederacy seceding from the Union after Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and fought to maintain their independence. The war started off as a war regarding the rights of the different states. As the war progressed, it ended up turning into a war about freedom, slaves, white Northerns rioting against the draft and black Americans, Union troops, and much more.

Women and nurses had a very big role in the civil war. They saved lives, and they also paved way for women in the future. Women were not only nurses in the civil war, but so much more.

The Medical Field in the Civil War is where they stepped up and took the challenge on healing the nation and approach medicine into the Modern Age. What I mean by that is that where Doctors, Nurses, Surgeons, and Physician took care of bullet wounds, diseases, and missing limbs. The diseases

After the first battle of the Civil War the Upper states in the South also seceded. Abraham Lincoln was able to persuade Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri to stay in the Union. By doing this Lincoln gained access to the river systems in Kentucky and Missouri that led into the heart of the South. This control effected the 1862 invasions of the south, which provided the North with most of its early military successes. The Civil War was total trench warfare. Technology was the main event that influenced total trench warfare. Technology led to ideas such as strategy, weapons, and transportation. It wasn't until 1865 the Civil War ended with the surrender of the South's army. The Civil War was an event that impacted the United States greatly economically, politically and socially. This impact called for great reconstruction after the Civil War.

Is a woman naturally weaker than a man? Medical research has shown that physically women are weaker than men in terms of muscles, blood level, and brain size. But socially women were made weaker by male dominated society. Women were bounded between two walls of the home. They were limited in domestic work like cooking, taking care of children, cleaning house, and washing clothes. War brought political, social, and economic change in women. Women played a role of back supporter for men during the war. Women started handling the agriculture, running commercial activities and other jobs that were used to be carried out by men before. Not only that woman helped men in making the weapons for war, providing the raw material

     The Civil War, often called the War for Southern Independence began on April 12, 1861. The main cause of the war was slavery. The southern states depended on slaves to help grow crops which were the main source of income for the south. Slavery was illegal in all of the northern states but most people actually were neutral about it. The main conflict was if slavery should be permitted in the newly developing western territories.

The Civil War was fought from 1861-1865. Two groups had emerged in America: the Union and the Confederation. While the Northern Union states wanted to abolish slavery, the Confederate states in the south were against it, for the fact that many southern states relied on the slave industry to keep their plantation afloat. The Civil War not only was begun to determine whether or not slavery should be abolished altogether, but whether or not unclaimed territory in the west should be adopted into the States as slave states or not. This war was incredibly brutal, and historians now believe that over 850,000 men lost their lives. The road leading to this disunity was made up of several events over time that continued to stir up controversy.